


Classic Who Secret Santa

by AslansCompass



Category: Doctor Who (1963)
Genre: Classic Who Secret Santa, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-23
Updated: 2014-12-23
Packaged: 2018-03-02 23:21:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 687
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2829743
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AslansCompass/pseuds/AslansCompass
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jo Grant has a visitor to the Doctor's lab.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Classic Who Secret Santa

**Author's Note:**

  * For [evilbeards](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=evilbeards).



> The capitalization is deliberate.

Jo stared at the jumble of flasks, burners, beakers, and other equipment. She’d just popped out for a moment and came back to find the Doctor gone. No knowing where he was, when he’d be back, or even how to get in touch with him. Just like him. Whatever the Brig had taken him for, would it really have been too much for him to wait for her?  
Maybe one of the chaps would know something. Or maybe the Doctor had left a note. She started rummaging around the table. No, nothing on or under the door. Nothing pinned to the TARDIS. Nothing scratched into the table.   
Alright, time to go looking for them. Jo ran out of the room.  
Back in the lab, a flask steamed away, slowly condensing onto another petri disk.  
Jo headed back into the main lab, muttering to herself. “Where is everyone today? All I found was the cleaning staff, and they had no idea where everyone has gone. It’s almost as if---oh dear!”  
A part of the lab was gone. Not picked up and moved, or ripped to shreds, or even covered in strange goo, but simply gone, erased as neatly and cleanly as a line sketch on a page. Jo stepped forward slowly, trying to get a closer look at it. It was about the same size as a sheet of paper, with no depth to it at all. Around it, everything appeared undisturbed.   
Was it dangerous? Jo cautiously took a measuring rod from another tab and gingerly poked at the what-ever-it-was. Vacuum? No, she may not have done well at O-levels but she’s pretty sure a vacuum would have left more damage. Oh, where had the Doctor gone to?   
The rod wasn’t in her hand anymore. She wasn’t holding anything. Jo jumped back, staring at her hand as if trying to make sure it was still there. Okay, that…that was odd.   
HEllO?  
Had she heard the words or just imagined them?  
ConTAct EstaBLIShed.  
That wasn’t her imagination. For one, it was too cliché. How many B-films began with a similar premise?  
So, YOU are familiar wiTH oTHer life foRMS.   
“Yes.”  
Good. You CAN help me.   
That never sounds good.  
I have information that can help your world.  
“What kind of information?”  
ComUNIcaTION. Better than you have. InSTANT. Encoded in STRings of light. Light and quick AS thought.  
“We have phones.”  
PhoneS? The whatever-it-was snorted in disdain. PerHAPS you are too PRimaTIVE to be of us.   
“That’s not true. Come out and I’ll show you.”   
The erased bit spilled over at the edges, producing a shape roughly man-high and made of light; perhaps not even light, perhaps more like static on a TV. Certainly, it didn’t even have facial features. It was a hole, not a being.  
What can YOU offer, girl?  
“Just a moment there, I thought you were the one making the offering. You had gifts, you said.”  
“GIFTS?” The words were less sharp-edged than they’d been, but Jo still couldn’t tell if they were spoken aloud or only to her mind. “PerHAPS. What DO you call it WHEN you’re Stuck in a hole, and Breaking THRouGH will send the WAtER in and DRoWn THE VILLAGE…”  
Jo frowned. The words were ominous enough, but as she stared at the being, it seemed to steam at the edges, like acid, eating at the edge of the world.   
“Well, we can discuss all that some other time. Would you like some tea?”  
“TEA?” The being said.  
“It’s lovely, just the thing to warm you up after a long journey. Here,” Jo grabbed a flask off the stove. “Drink up.”  
The flask flickered a moment at the edge of the static.   
Jo couldn’t explain what happened after that. It was like an explosion, but nothing broke; like bright light, but darkness at the same time.   
When she tried to explain it to the Doctor, he said something about “heavy matter reacting with anti-matter” that left her none the wiser . “It’s alright, Jo. Why don’t we sit down and have another cup of tea? But not from the lab, right?”


End file.
